Kimberley Carey

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m a 30-something, first time mom. Born in England, raised in Queens. I work in advertising and am a self-proclaimed (semi-reformed) workaholic. I love to travel and my guilty pleasure is Molly’s cake batter cupcakes.

What 3 words best describe your parenting experience to date?

Emotional, Amazing, Hard

What’s one of the hardest or most surprising things about being a parent that people wouldn’t expect or don’t usually talk about?

I have a few of these, but one of the most surprising things for me to learn was just how insecure all parents really are. No one really knows what they’re doing, but they’re all doing their best to not mess up. It seems sort of obvious, but I didn’t realize it until becoming a parent… we just don’t know what we’re doing most of the time and we all freak out about it and overthink. One of the hardest things was the witching hour… NO ONE talks about this!!

What were some of your “wait...is this normal??” moments once you became a parent?

(2) It’s a fun game to examine dirty diapers (“What color do you think it’ll be?” “What did it look like?” “Do you want to see it?”) These are some of the questions my husband and I ask regularly.

(3) I (sort of) don’t want the night feedings to end now that I’m back at work because these are precious moments, even though I’m exhausted beyond belief.

(4) I fantasize about quitting work until I realize I’ll have to entertain my 8-month-old 7 days a week.

What’s one of your favorite parenting hacks that helps keep you sane (that other parents should know about and start doing ASAP)?

Such a time-saver: I pick out my daughter’s outfits for the week on Sunday night. One less thing to worry about in the mornings. I used to get so caught up in which cute outfit to put her in. Now I don’t even have to think about it and we can generally get out of the door for daycare on-time(ish)!